Oral Answers to Questions

Alex Cunningham Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)]

4. What assessment she has made of the effect on women's employment of providing support for child care.

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

6. What recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on the role of child care for working mothers.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Maria Miller)]

The Government fully recognise the importance of child care in helping parents—not just mothers—to move into or stay in work. Under universal credit, we will for the first time extend help with child care costs to those working under 16 hours, benefiting some 80,000 families who previously had no such support.

[Maria Miller]

We have announced that under universal credit we will support an extra 80,000 families with child care, and that we are doubling the number of two-year-olds getting free nursery care. If the right hon. Gentleman is asking us to reconsider his Government’s policy of increasing support for child care to some 80%, perhaps he will explain where he will find the £600 million that the Daycare Trust feels it would cost to implement the policy.

[Alex Cunningham]

This month, 212,000 couples face losing their working tax credit if they cannot find more working hours. Many parents will be forced to give up work, and they may be forced to give up their child care places as a result. What will the Government do to monitor the impact of the changes to family support on the child care market, to ensure that when women can return to work they will not be left struggling to find a child care place?

[Maria Miller]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that it is important that there is a supply of child care places. I am sure he knows that there is a duty on local authorities to ensure sufficiency of supply, and I remind him that with the new local authority early intervention grant, there is money to ensure the necessary supply for just the families he is talking about.